Lucknow: A section of students studying at the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi has launched a signature campaign, demanding an impartial inquiry into the death of one Varad Nerkar, an M. Tech. student who died by suicide on the campus on February 15.

The campaign follows the allegation of Varad’s family, which had written to the director of IIT Delhi on March 3, alleging that the deceased was forced to take the extreme step. They alleged he was subjected to inordinate mental harassment by his project guides Prof Harpal Singh, Prof Josemon Jacob as well as a PhD scholar Mohammad Anees from the department of polymer science.  

“A bright and intelligent child like Varad cannot do this. A few hurtful statements made by Mr Harpal compelled him to take the step” read the letter written by the deceased’s parents.

Committee to Find Out Prevailing Circumstances

Responding to the allegation, IIT Delhi Director Professor Rangan Banerjee said the complaint has been forwarded to the police and an investigation is underway. A 12-member committee, he said, has also been constituted to examine the prevailing circumstances in the institute, which supposedly pushed several students to commit suicide over a period of a year.

The students of the IIT Delhi, while welcoming the move, also emphasised the need for probing the allegation of harassment.

The students demanded that an external inquiry committee be constituted by the institute, similar to the one that was commissioned by IIT Madras last year to investigate the death of its student Sachin Kumar Jain. The panel’s report had led to the suspension of a professor for harassing the student.

Institute an External Committee: In line with the Varad’s parents’ concerns, the students of IIT Delhi demanded that the institute should appoint an inquiry committee, comprising students and external members, to rule out alleged bias on the campus.

“A police enquiry would investigate the matter from a criminal angle and that is important. But it does not oversee violations of IIT Delhi’s internal policies and statutes, and nor is it concerned with the breach of the norms of a student-guide relationship. Varad’s parents have emphasised that their appeal in the complaint letter was for an independent external committee that would investigate the role of institutional administrative norms being violated in the circumstances of Varad’s death,” the students said in a statement shared on X (formerly Twitter).

The students further demanded that the findings of the committee must be disclosed to the student community and that proper action should be taken against the guilty.

“We want institutional change, but we cannot ensure it unless we ensure that people in authority are held responsible for their abuse of power. If institutional change is not to be reduced to a talking point, then the institute must find it its duty as well to investigate the specific causes that drove Varad to commit suicide, as well as the larger environmental causes,” the students added.

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